C. Diff: The New Drug

Other more selective antibiotics such as Vancocin and Flagyl are typically
used to treat the infection, but many patients still suffer recurrences, says
Sjoerd Wadman, PhD, director of therapeutic products at Novacta.

These drugs work in about 75% of patients, he says. "But after seemingly
successful initial treatment, symptoms come back in some 20% to 25% of patients
10 to 30 days later," he tells WebMD.

Researchers don't fully understand why recurrences occur, but they believe
that even these "selective" antibiotics sometimes kill off the "good" pathogens
in the gut, Wadman says.

In the animal studies, the researchers infected hamsters with C.
diff. They also gave them the antibiotic clindamycin, which disturbed the
normal gut flora and allowed C. diff to grow.

If the animals aren't treated further, they will die within 72 hours, Dawson
says. But they lived much longer when given NVB302, he says.

The research was presented at the annual Interscience Conference on
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

C. Diff: Expert Comments

Now the company is conducting safety studies in healthy animals, a step
required by the FDA before human testing can proceed.

One of the big advantages of the new drug is that the studies showed it is
not significantly absorbed into the bloodstream after being given orally, says
Karen Bush, PhD, an expert specializing in the development of new products for
infectious diseases at Indiana University, Bloomington.

"This means it's less likely to affect the normal [healthy] bacteria [than
other antibiotics]," she tells WebMD. Bush was not involved with the work.